The present invention relates generally to a sheet support trays and, more particularly, to a sheet support tray adapted to prevent jamming when the tray is receiving sheets having curled up ends.
Many paper processing devices, such as for example laser printers, heat and dry out one side of a sheet of paper which is being processed more than the other side. This differential heating and drying causes the paper to curl up at the ends when the more heated/dried side of the paper is placed in a face up orientation on a flat surface. When such sheets of paper are subsequently handled, either in the device applying the differential heat or in other devices such as an automatic document feeder (ADF), the curled up ends of the sheets tend to cause problems. An automatic document feeder is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,232,216 of Bybee which is hereby incorporated by reference for all that it discloses. An automatic document feeder for an optical scanner takes sheets, one at a time. from a paper tray and feeds the sheets in series across a scanner platen. The ADF then deposits these sheets, one on top of the other, in a paper discharge tray. The leading edge of each sheet is pushed across the top surface of the immediately preceding sheet as it enters the paper discharge tray. If the trailing edge of the sheet lying in the tray is curled up, the leading edge of the next incoming sheet tends to catch on it and cause a paper jam.
Another problem experienced with paper trays, particularly discharge end paper trays, is that due to static electricity or simply due to the small thickness of the paper, it is difficult for a user to grasp the paper to pull it out of the tray.
It would be generally desirable to provide a paper tray which overcomes the above discussed problems.